A Lunch BIT from Raising the Stakes by T. L. Taylor

Raising the Stakes by T.L. Taylor charts the rise of professional gaming and connects it to bigger issues within society. According to the Major League Gaming (MLG) website—the definitive source for e-gaming, the sport is growing rapidly. From 2010-2012 viewership in the MLG grew 334%. Pair this with a huge pot of awarded prize money ($160,000), and it makes a compelling argument in favor of professional gaming warranting mainstream attention. In the BIT “Computer Games as Professional Sport” Taylor examines the shift from recreational video and computer game play to a competitive sport replete with officials, tournaments, corporate sponsors, and even fans.

Game Studies said this of Raising the Stakes, “Raising the Stakes is a must not only for game studies but also media and internet studies researchers as a wonderfully nuanced study of century-first digital play-based in DIY, grassroots ideology-in the face of burgeoning leisure commercialization. Play on.”